Happy Birthday Will! and Pictures from our visit to the States

Will's Birthday! The boys went to the store by themselves and bought Will a cake! They said they tried to find candles that said "27" but they didn't have any... so they bought candles that said "30"... haha, they thought it was so funny, and it was... good cake too.

From our visit to TN on our canoe ride up to the mouth of the river that feeds the lake.

Rachel's brother's kids at the lake.

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Home in Honduras!

Hello to all! We arrived safely to a normal Honduras yesterday. Darwin and Arnold were there to pick us up. We all jumped in a taxi, bargained about the price and headed to our house to drop off our stuff and then go to one of our favortie restaurants with the boys, Palacio Real, and it all felt so normal. We are at the mall today, a stop on the way to pick up our truck from Baxter and things are totally tranquil.

We are still feeling things out for a while before we jump back into our old routine. We plan on heading up to Mogote today to check on the progress of the kitchen and say hello to our friends and church members we left without saying goodbye. I am very excited to see them all.

It was great to visit family and friends in the states and came at a really good time for us to be able to relax a bit in the middle of a crazy busy summer. But we are happy to be back here at home and back to work.

We are in the United States

We just wanted to let everyone know that we are back into the United States, just in time for some good cookouts and fun holiday. We will be traveling to Tulsa from Dallas Saturday morning and then plan on being at Memorial Road for church Sunday morning.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. Please keep praying that the situation is resolved soon and we hope to return as soon as possible. God's plans and timing are bigger than we are and we trust that but still would like to return soon.

We are safe and sound

We just wanted to let everyone know that despite the political situation that is going on here in Honduaras we are safe. Our groups are all heading home by Thursday. We just finalized tickets back for all of our interns too for the same day. We realize no one is giving out courage medals for those who stay so we are also heading for the states on Thursday to Dallas.

It is hard to leave, but we plan on returning to Honduras as soon as possible. We pray that things settle quickly so we can come back to working with people we have come to know and love.

Stories from the Stadium

The last week has been really good at the stadium with some cool things happening that are fun to share.

Suyapa, the gum seller, told me the other night that when she talks to her dad, she asks him to take care of Raquel and the other people in her group that bring the food. It took me a second to figure out that she meant when she was pryaing she asked God her father to take care of me. Wow. I was floored. She prays for me? Wow! The simple faith of people can be astounding.

One guy that we have been having some problems with in the past showed up last night. It had been a while since he had been around because one time he got so angry that he threw his food in Darwin´s direction and all over the truck. I was content that he hadn´t been around in a while causing problems, but he came back last night and apoligized to all of us individually. That is pretty awesome.

One guy who is always happy and always wearing clothes that are too big for him named Carlos and I were having a chat last night. He was interested in how long we were going to be here and I said we are going to be here for 2 years for sure and after that we have a big decision to make about what we will do after that. I said it´s hard because we have friends and family in the states that we really miss, but if we leave we will miss people here in Honduras too. I asked him what he thought and he said, well that decision is yours. But he sat and thought for a moment and then asked me, well, where do you have more friends? I laughed and said well, that is a good question but I dont know, and he replied, Honduras of course! Haha, that made me feel special that he hinted at wanted us to stay.

Please continue to pray for the people at the stadium. They are great people, battling addicio

Chainsaw Framing, Churches with a View

This past week we have gotten to work with some great people on some great projects. The first project was the roof in Mogote over the classrooms. Norm, James, and Justin Easter along with Tom and Evelyn Poteit came down to make the church less leaky. It was a great project and the classrooms will now be much more functional and less musty during the rainy season.

Then Dudley Chancey, Bill Walters, and Don Drew came down to put a roof on the church in Isopo (and help finish the one in Mogote). The walls of the church have been built but with no roof leaving the building useless until that was finished. With the help of some chainsaw framing and lots of thought, the church in Isopot now has a roof. We were so glad to be able to help with these projects which were really usefull. The people in Isopo were so happy to have their new building. In the evenings during this last week there was usually about 100 people watching as the sun lowered into the beautiful mountains in the distance. On the last day when finished the church members gave us an official thank you letter with the stamp of the church on it saying that they were so thankful.

(The kids love to sit in the back of the truck)

(The finished product)

I think in this last week we have gotten be at some of the most beautiful churches in the world. This is a picture of the church in the mountain east 2 hours on a dirt road from Catacamas in Las Cabas. Then working on the roof in Isopo with a view of the green vallies surounded by mountains, wow, beautiful places.

I love renewing our visas.

It has been a long time since we blogged... things have gotten a little busy, but things are really good. My cousin JC and his friends have been here, along with Dudley who brought Bart and Melissa Dodson whom we are happy to now call our friends. Groups have started coming and are doing some neat things.

We just got back this morning from a visa renewal to Costa Rica. Just Will and I went this time since Amber is going back to the states next month. We had so much fun and it was perfect timing to go and be able to relax. We went to Jaco beach. While we were there, Will surfed until the jumping sting rays out of the waves made him a little timid, fished, I read, swam and just enjoyed the beauty. It was a great time.

Seriously beautiful.

Will fishin.

We are back in Teguc, refreshed and ready to hit it hard for another 3 months.